GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 06 May) – The city police has created a special tracker team to expand the investigation and continuing search for eight persons, including four minors, who have been reported missing since last month.
Maj. Rissa Hernaez, spokesperson of the city police office, said they are currently coordinating with relatives, friends and other concerned persons to establish the possible location of the missing individuals.
She said the creation of the tracker team was ordered by Col. Gilberto Tuzon, the city police director, in response to requests from concerned local government officials.
“We are trying to gather more information from the families of the missing persons to determine the circumstances of their disappearance and get potential leads as to their whereabouts,” she said in an interview over local television program “Morning Hataw.”
Of the eight missing persons reported to various city police stations, seven were aged below 20-years-old while one was 46-years-old.
Four of them were minors, with three aged 16-years-old from Barangay Katangawan who reportedly went missing on the same day.
Hernaez said it was possible that three of the four minors knew each other but investigators were still determining their connections.
“We’re looking at the family situation as well as the activities of each of them before they went missing,” she said.
The police official acknowledged that they are facing difficulty in processing the ongoing tracking since most of them were only reported missing two to three weeks after their disappearance.
She cited the case of one of them who went missing last April 2 but was only reported to the city police on April 19.
Hernaez said these incidents should be reported immediately after 24 hours or while the movements and involved persons were still limited.
She said the tracker team has coordinated with their counterparts in the neighboring provinces and cities to assist the search activities.
They have also posted information on the missing persons on Facebook to facilitate wider reach, she said. (MindaNews)